Greetings, All:
I was all set to pick up a Weber Bullet smoker about a month ago, and my local dealer talked me into going with a CS Smokette instead. It was much more money than I had been planning to spend, but he sold me on the convenience factor -- and I'm sure glad he did! I've been smoking with a vengeance every since, something I'd never do if I had to go through the hassle of tending a charcoal unit.
At ANY rate, I've got a few questions to throw out to all you experts. Maybe y'all can help me jump the curve on a few things.
First of all, while I've had some good successes (most notably a pork butt and some smoked salmon) I've also had a number of things that tasted extremely bitter, like they were coated in creosote. A brisket came out extremely tough and sooty tasting, and some cheese I just did for Christmas tasted like I'd marinated it in an ashtray.
Taking the cheese as a specific instance, I rigged up a tin drum on top of my smokette as some others had suggested. This unit really filled with smoke nicely, with just a few holes punched in top to vent, and it stayed nice and cool for the cheese. After an hour, however, I tasted it and it was awful. It had a black, bitter, sooty coating on one side and was virtually inedible. Now I'll confess I used a few pieces of lump hardwood charcoal along with my 4oz of hickory, so maybe the charcoal was the culprit, but I've gotten the same result without the charcoal on some other recipes I've attempted. I had just assumed that if my tin chamber was adequately filled with smoke, and stayed cool enough, I'd be assured of good results if I just let the cheese sit in there and checked it occasionally for taste. Wrong!
Is it important that I thoroughly clean out the unit and scrape out the old "scale" between each use? I thought I'd read that this wasn't a necessary step until it got truly gunked up. Alternatively, does soaking the wood make a difference, or does the quality of the smoke change with higher or lower temperatures? So far, I haven't been able to get that "smoky sweet" taste with any of the wood I've tried -- in fact, I haven't been able to tell much difference at all between the hickory, cherry, and mesquite I've used whatsoever. Maybe I just don't have a discriminating palate, but for now, I'll just keep experimenting and hope the results improve.
If anybody can give me specific advice on the cheese, however, I'd love to still try and pump out a decent batch before Christmas. Thanks much!
Original Post
Just a little advice. Don't use charcoal with cheese, only a small piece of hickory or milder wood. Don't soak the wood. Use small amounts of mild wood with light tasting meats such as poultry and fish. With beef and lean pork, opt for lower temps and longer cooking times. Mesquite and oak are strong woods, apple, cherry, and hickory are milder. Make up different rub recipes you really like for different meats and stick with them. Good Luck.